ANSA reported the news. The Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has been charged with concealing the child sex offences of a priest

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Pubblicato il
18/03/2015

Ultima modifica il 18/03/2015 alle ore 13:58

vatican insider staff

Mgr. Philip Wilson’s trial should start on 30 April. The Archbishop of Adelaide, one of the Catholic Church’s most senior figures has been charged with covering for a paedophile priest. Australia has called this a crucial precedent for other proceedings that derived from the conclusions of the national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, ANSA news agency reports.

The Commission has investigated churches, charities, local governments, schools, community organisations and the police, in a series of hearings and interrogations that have taken place over the course of the past two years. It has reported more than 500 cases to the police and according to legal sources, Archbishop Wilson’s trial can be used as a template for other prosecutions.

Wilson, the 64-year-old Vice President of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, is accused of concealing serious offences, notably acts of sexual abuse carried out against minors by Fr. James Fletcher in the1970s, when both were serving in the Diocese of Maitland, north of Sydney. Fletcher died in prison at the age of 65, in 2006, one year after he was sentenced to almost eight years in prison for abusing a 13-year-old altar boy between 1989 and 1991.

The prelate, who is on indefinite leave, has denied the allegations, saying he is ready to “vigorously defend” himself in court. “The suggestion appears to be that I failed to bring to attention of police a conversation I am alleged to have had in 1976, when I was a junior priest,” Archbishop Wilson said in a statement. “From the time this was first brought to my attention last year, I have completely denied the allegation. I intend to vigorously ­defend my innocence through the judicial system,” he added.

One of Fletcher’s victims, Peter Gogarty, yesterday said the decision to charge Archbishop Wilson was “hugely significant”. “Everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence but it’s proof that our system works, that no one in the country is above the law. At the very least, I think Fletcher could have been removed from the church system all those years ago,” Mr. Gogarty said.